play video its vs its
Up Next
Title
CANCEL
video its vs its
Commonly Confused

Its vs. It's

Some practical guidance, and interesting history, about a common mistake.

Some practical guidance, and interesting history, about a common mistake.

Up next

play video its vs its
Its vs. It's

 

Some practical guidance, and interesting history, about a common mistake.

play calendar that says day today
Is It 'day today' or 'day-to-day'?

 

What about Day Tomorrow?

play serenity carr next to an illustration of a refrigerator with the letter d in it
Why is there a 'd' in 'fridge' but not in 'refrigerator'?

 

Thawing one of the mysteries of English

play serial comma
The Serial Comma Explained

 

Why don't they call it the Merriam-Webster comma?

play video lay vs lie
Lay vs. Lie

 

Editor Emily Brewster clarifies the difference.

play video affect vs effect
Affect vs. Effect

 

Here's the lowdown on what may be the most confusing pair of words in the English language.

play video how a word gets into the dicionary
How a Word Gets into the Dictionary

 

What our editors are looking for when they enter words in Merriam-Webster.

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
chain-question-mark
Missing Link Quiz July 2026 Five seconds to figure out the word that fits bot...
See All